Stalemate
by ragamuffin009
Summary: In November 1940, seven boys got drafted into the army... And 1 girl signed up to bail one of their sorry asses out. Now they need to learn how to deal with 'Dear John' letters, antipathy, and one crazy Lieutenant that makes them run 600 laps at a time!
1. Letter

My first in a while. Please let me know what you think.

Non-yaoi, mild violence, mild alcohol use, mild language, mild sexual themes, cross-dressing.

Okay, I know I said I'd never do this again, bu with the help of my girlfriend and my best friend, I'm BACK baby!

Really short intro chappie, as usual. I've gotten better at writing, and I promise it won't skip around as often as it does here! The characters get all squished together soon, anyway. World War II FTW!

--------

Kankurou's hands trembled. He put the letter down on the table. "Oh, man," he muttered in disbelief. "Oh, man... Gaara?" he called his younger brother's name.

"Yes, Kankurou?" The redhead reponded from the top of the stairs.

"Can you..." Kankurou swallowed, hard. "Can you come downstairs for a minute?"

"...Sure... Why?" Gaara was wrapped in a towel, his hair slightly wet. He glided across the room, stopping just next to his brother.

"G-Got a letter. 'S on the table." Kankurou stuttered, still trembling. Gaara shrugged and picked it up. He began reading the letter out loud.

"By direction of the President under authority contained in Public Resolution number 96, 76th Congress, approved 27 August 1940..." He stopped reading for a moment, his eyes scanning the page furiously. "...The following men are ordered to active duty, effective 25 November 1940, for a period of one year, unless sooner relieved..." His eyes moved farther down the page, his brow furrowing. "Kankurou Sabaku... Gaara Sabaku..."

"Gaara," Kankurou said, collapsing into a chair, "We got drafted."

"...I will go telephone Temari and her husband..."

"Yeah. Father probably already knows. I... I gotta go meet Tenten..."

---

"Hey ma!" Kiba called from the front door. "I got the mail! And I got the pills for Hana's new mutt!"

"That's good!" his mother came into the room, taking a curler out of her hair. "Let me see the mail, then..." She took the letters from him. Her face blanched when she read the first one.

"What is it, ma?"

"Kiba, go see your girl."

"Why?"

"You won't see her for a long time, boy. Not where you're going."

---

"Hey, brat," Itachi said, throwing an envelope at his brother, "we've recieved a letter."

"What kind of letter?" Sasuke asked, returning Itachi's cold glare.

"Consignment letter." He walked back out of the room without saying anything more.

Sasuke blinked and read the note several times over, then crumpled it up and tossed it in the garbage can. He shrugged in acceptance. The phone rang.

"Sasuke Uchiha speaking. Oh, it's you, dobe... Itachi and I got a draft letter. ...Hm. You won't last a second out there, you know. Yeah, right. We'll see about that..."

---

"New Jersey may be a tough place, Naruto," said Iruka, pacing the room as he had been the past hour... As he had been ever since he checked the mail and found the letter that any father dreaded in a wartime. "But New Jersey is nothing compared to a warzone..."

"Big deal," Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head and grinning. "If I got one of those letter deals, then I'll bet Sasuke did too! And I'm sure as hell not gonna wimp out on this if he's going too! In fact..." He sat up straight, excitement edging into his voice, "I'm gonna call him right now just to see!" He raced over to the telephone.

"Hey! ...Yeah, it's me, Naruto! ...You got one too? Hah! ...Whadda you mean?! I bet I'll blast way more Germans than you...!"

Iruka sighed. "There's just no getting through to that boy."


	2. Haircut

Ah, yes, chapter 2 is much longer. Here you get a little sense of how each character acts, as well as little introduction to the 'new' boy.

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The Jeep pulled into the camp. Kankurou swallowed and subconciously moved a little closer to Gaara, who was leaning over the side, looking bored. They passed by a large tent, in front of which was a boy with dark hair, who was moving little figurines around on a map. A tan, bearded man laughed and moved several of the pieces back. Kankurou heard a bit of their conversation.

"...Can't just sacrifice men like that, Nara."

"Why not, they don't mean a thing to me..."

Kankurou blinked and turned around. On the other side, he could see a tall boy with pale eyes getting a haircut. He looked angry, watching locks of his dark brown hair fall to the ground. After they passed him, there were two other boys having an argument. It looked like they knew each other.

"...Can't do that, not even you!" The blonde one was saying.

"Just watch me, dobe, I'll prove..." The other one caught sight of Kankurou. "Got a problem, huh?"

"Uh..." Kankurou muttered, "No." the Jeep kept going. He sighed. Those two boys looked just about as old as Gaara, and the one with the hair was probably about Tenten's age.

"All right, get out." The man driving the Jeep said, turning to them. Gaara jumped out first, followed by a short boy with long, brown hair, Kankurou, and a few other boys from Flagstaff, like them. "You're all going to get a haircut... And you can call me Sergeant Hatake." The Sergeant went through a roll call. The boy with long hair was called Terry.

After they all had their hair cut (Kankurou was planning on getting one soon, anyway), they were introduced to another boy around their age. He looked like he actually had military training, like the boy with the map Kankurou had noticed earlier. "Hello! You can call me Lieutenant Lee! I will be training you all for combat!" he saluted. The rest of them saluted back, mostly half-assedly.

After that, they were left alone to get situated. Kankurou was curious about the boy named Terry. He looked so familiar, but Kankurou was sure he didn't know him.

---

"Besides, I think I▓ll only send them to the front lines if they annoy me." Shikamaru leaned back.

"Oh come on, now!" Asuma replied, still beaming. However, there was a wary look in his eye. "If you do that, there won't be any soldiers left!"

"Whatever. They don't know how to fight. Look at them," he gestured to one with dark brown hair, who was acting as if he was a cut above the rest of the new recruits, ordering them around. "When he got here, he had hair down to his goddamn ass. Neji Hyuuga, from Sacramento, California. He's a little rich boy, far from home." He pointed to another boy, short and lean, grinning like an idiot. "And him, Naruto Uzumaki. He looked excited to be here, Asuma, excited. Morons," Shikamaru spat. "None of them know what they're in for."

"Well, sooner or later, they'll find out." Asuma stood up. "Enough strategy for today, I think. I need to get back to the main camp." He paused. "Don't be too hard on them, Nara."

"Yeah, yeah." Shikamaru packed up the map and figurines and went back into his tent.

---

Kiba was a little nervous. He didn't know anyone in the camp, not even the other boys from Sacramento. There was one person that looked a little familiar, but he hadn't been paying attention to the roll call. He looked around, licking his lips.

"Hey, you!" Kiba turned around. The boy behind him was grinning, and his hands were behind his head.

"Yeah, what do you want?" He blinked as he realized how much of a jerk he sounded like. "Er... sorry, I'm a little jumpy."

"Heh, no need to be! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?"

"Me, I'm Kiba. Kiba Inuzuka. You got drafted too, huh?" Naruto grinned again and closed his eyes.

"Yeah, think everyone here did. Well, except for Lieutenants Lee and Nara. They're our age, but they're all..." he paused. "You know..." He did a comical imitation of a salute, frowning deeply and furrowing his brow. Kiba laughed loudly.

"Wahoo! You're a riot, Naruto. I'm gonna stick around you, if ya don't mind!"

"No problem! Hey, come meet my friend, Sasuke!"

"Okay...!"

---

Later on, it was time to "Bunk up, privates!" according to Lee. Naruto was relieved to find his bunk was two down from Sasuke's, and right next to his new friend, Kiba's. He groaned, however, when he found out that on the other side was Neji's bunk. Across the row were a large boy whose name escaped Naruto, and three boys who came in from Arizona.

Of course, he made a point of getting to know his neighbours. Naruto liked meeting new people anyway, and was determined to walk away from this with some new friends. So, he asked their names.

"Chouji Akimichi," the fat one replied, blushing. "I snuck some snacks in here if anyone wants some..." Neji scoffed.

"I highly doubt you need any more food," he turned up his pert little nose.

"What are you saying...?" Chouji's eyes narrowed.

"I'm saying, you're f-" One of the boys from Arizona stepped in.

"Hey, calm down." All eyes turned to him. "Uh..." He faltered, looking all too aware of the sudden attention. "Y-you don't want to get in a fight and run the risk of being caught, right?" he looked over at Neji. "They might make you scrub toilets or something." With the threat of putting his face anywhere near the latrines hanging in the air, the rich boy swallowed his pride and muttered an apology.

"So, who are you?" Naruto demanded of the peacemaker.

"...Kankurou... kankurou Sabaku. And that's my brother, Gaara." he gestured to the short, red-haired boy sitting on the bed next to him. Gaara simply nodded.

"And you?" Naruto looked to the last boy. He coughed and cleared his throat before answering.

"Terry." he didn't say anything more than that.

"Well, I'm Naruto Uzumaki! That's my friend Sasuke over there," he pointed at the pale, brooding boy.

"And I'm Kiba!" he grinned widely, pointy canine teeth glinting.

Just then, the door swung open.

"Lights out means shut yer yaps!" came the disgruntled shout of Leiutenant Nara. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

The door closed. Several of the boys giggled. "This don't seem so bad," Naruto stated.

A few of the others didn't look as sure.


End file.
